Senge's Mental Models

Description

Senge (1990) describes mental models thus:

“Mental models are deeply held internal images of how the
world works, images that limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting. Very
often, we are not consciously aware of our mental models or the effects they
have on our behavior”

Not only do we all create mental models, we also share them. In this way,
entire organizations have shared mental models which shape their strategies and
internal ways of working.

Discussion

Senge's work is largely in the business context rather than the psychological
and academic landscape of other systems of models.

Senge's mental models are one of five disciplines, based around a holistic
systems theory, that make up a core set of skills that are important for guiding
organizations (Senge et al., 1990). These are:

Systems thinking

Personal mastery

Mental models

Building shared vision

Team learning

Models are not perfect. They are lenses through which we see reality.
In this way, the model, for us is reality.

One of the pernicious effects of models is that they block and distort
information, resulting in opportunities being missed and threats ignored. This
is a key reason why
successful
businesses inexorably fail as they
attribute their success to
models that exaggerate innate skills and downplay environmental factors.

So what?

Understand not only your models but also those of people around you,
including the entire organization. Look for blind spots and attribution of
success that point to skill and ignore luck. Note how the models may once have
been valid but have now been invalidated by changing environmental factors such
as technology and new competition.